[LINK] Tech giants tell government they don’t want its software to stop cyber attacks

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Fri Jul 9 11:38:22 AEST 2021


https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tech-giants-tell-government-they-don-t-want-its-software-to-stop-cyber-attacks-20210708-p587y1.html

> Some of the world’s largest technology companies have told Parliament a proposed bill to allow Australia’s cyber security agencies 
> to install software on their networks risked making the problem of digital attacks worse.**
>
> The federal government has unveiled a bill to address a wave of cyber attacks on Australian organisations, which continued on 
> Thursday when the NSW Education Department was forced to pull platforms offline <https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p587z7>.
>
> The bill would allow the Australian government’s digital security agencies to intervene in companies’ networks to address severe 
> cyber attacks. However, Google, Amazon and Atlassian – with a combined market capitalisation in the trillions – all pushed back 
> hard on Thursday in a hearing with the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.
>
> They argued their global networks and systems are managed by tens of thousands of engineers and are barraged by sometimes billions 
> of potential attacks every day, and were far too large and complex for the government to step in and install software in response 
> to a threat.
>
> “We think in many instances there’s just a really big risk of the government misunderstanding how the regulated entity operates 
> and maybe making things worse,” said Roger Sommerville, the local policy chief at Amazon Web Services, which provides hosting for 
> more than 1 million companies.
>
> He said when the government was determined to step in and demand to access their networks, that should require a judge’s approval 
> to ensure transparency in the same way as a search warrant.
>
> Shane Huntley, a director of Google’s security group said he “can’t imagine a situation where there is some software from the 
> Australian Cyber Security Centre or the Australian Signals Directorate would even work, let alone be safe”.
>
> “I’m not aware of any unique [government] capabilities or software that cannot be matched by the more robust systems that we’ve 
> built for ourselves and commercial systems.”
>
> Atlassian’s representative agreed, saying he could not think of a situation where ASD software would be useful.
>
> Labor’s Anthony Byrne, the committee’s deputy chair, described the tech companies’ evidence as concerning.
>
> Chairman James Paterson asked the companies to clarify whether they didn’t want any government assistance responding to cyber 
> attacks, prompting them to clarify they valued close collaboration with Australian government agencies on the nature and origin of 
> security threats.
>
> During the hearing, Senator Paterson recounted previous evidence from the director of the Australian Signals Directorate, the 
> country’s digital spy agency, that a company under a cyber attack had not informed authorities and used “a whole series of 
> obstructions” when the directorate asked to help.
>
> The company was not identified at the hearing, but Senator Paterson, a Liberal, asked probing questions of a number of other 
> companies about their collaboration with government digital agencies.
>
> Representatives from several companies appearing before the committee, including Qantas, logistics provider Toll and energy firm 
> AGL, said they did not believe theirs was the company in question.
>
> That prompted a reminder from Senator Paterson that lies or omissions to the committee were a contempt of Parliament.
>

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
+61 404072753
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request




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